People Who Inspire: Ariela Suster, a Designer and CEO with a Mission

The social entrepreneur is changing the lives of at-risk Salvadoran youth, one bracelet at a time.

By
Shondaland Staff

Feb 11, 2018

This article is the first of Shondaland.com's new collaborative series with Microsoft called "People Who Inspire."

Ariela Suster is the kind of real-life hero most of us aspire to be. The CEO, designer, and native Salvadoran has devoted her life to helping El Salvador's at-risk youth. Her jewelry and accessory business, Sequence (which was named to symbolize disrupting the sequence of violence — young Salvadorans often join violent gangs as a means to survive) employs at-risk youth and provides them with training, steady work, and salaries up to three times higher than they'd make elsewhere. Perhaps most crucially, Sequence gives young people an alternative to joining gangs. Violence in El Salvador is a serious issue: The tiny country (pop. 6 million) experiences nearly 500 murders a month and gang members number in the tens of thousands — at least 60,000 Salvadorans are currently in gangs, and half a million are connected to them in some way.

Sequence was founded in 2011, and, since then, has grown to include 40 employees and a full e-commerce site that delivers the brand's bracelets, necklaces, and bags to international buyers. It has entered into strategic partnerships with companies like Microsoft — who work closely with Suster, providing infrastructure to help her grow her business along with technology that allows her to communicate with teams in multiple locations and work collectively on design concepts. In addition, in the past seven years, Suster has embarked upon collaborations with big-name designers such as Jonathan Simkai and Diane von Furstenberg (Suster's DVF collaboration hit stores earlier this month).

We caught up with Suster to talk mentorship, inspiration, and what it's really like to be a socially-conscious entrepreneur.

Microsoft

Shondaland: When you were growing up, what did you want to do?

Ariela Suster: I grew up and lived in El Salvador. Growing up, I didn’t exactly know what I wanted to do but I knew I wanted to become someone who could make a difference. My father always encouraged me to find what I was passionate about.

SL: Who were your role models?

AS: I really looked up to my parents who both worked very hard. They both had full time jobs and found ways to be really present in the lives of me and my brothers. We had dinners together every night and family time on the weekends. I really looked up to them and the way they pursued their careers, how they grew professionally and how at the same time they brought so much love to our family.

SL: What was your goal or the initial mission of Sequence?

AS: The mission for Sequence has always been to disrupt the cycle of violence that limits at-risk youth. I wanted to create a sustainable model that could provide employment and training opportunities for young men and women who live in gang and violence-ridden communities as an alternative path to joining the cycle of violence.

You are in charge of creating your own destiny. Don’t doubt your power.

SL: What has been your biggest challenge so far?

AS: One of the biggest challenges at the beginning was our sales model. We were selling our products, which are handmade and have a really powerful story, in retail stores and boutiques, but the story was lost and customers weren’t aware of the social impact when they were buying our products. Also sell-through was challenging — we felt we were losing the opportunity to spread our mission. We changed our business model and started to focus more on our online store and on partnerships and collaborations that highlight our mission and story. The more products we sell, the more at-risk youth we can employ.

Sequence

SL: What has surprised you most?

AS: One of the things that surprised me the most was having a majority of our workshop [participants] be young men. I didn’t think that in a male-dominated society and culture like El Salvador that young men would want to work creating, designing and producing fashion accessories. I think it was the whole idea that our workshop and company culture is more than just making a product. Young men are coming to work with us to become agents of change, to disrupt the cycle of violence. They feel proud of what they learn and what they create.

I think entrepreneurs need to have strong why, a really compelling reason why they do what they do.

SL: What is your basic business philosophy?

AS: To always stay true to the mission of our company. Our mission is: To disrupt the cycle of violence that limits at risk youth by creating cool handcrafted products that generate employment, by developing and supporting programs that lead to personal and professional development, by leveraging partnerships and collaborations to strategically grow our business.

Microsoft

SL: Who inspires you?

AS: The young men and women who I work with inspire me every day.

SL: What qualities do you think you need to be a successful entrepreneur? A successful leader?

AS: I think entrepreneurs in order to be successful need to have strong why, a really compelling reason why they do what they do. Launching a business, managing it, scaling it is hard, it never gets easy, so if you don’t have a purpose for doing what you do you will give up easily. I believe a successful leader creates a strong, inspiring company culture based on a great mission.

Sequence

SL: Tell me about the collaboration with Diane von Furstenberg.

AS: She is my new godmother, mentor, she is amazing, I admire her as a business woman and as a person. She rocks!

I met her through Vital Voices, a non-profit, non-governmental organization that works with women leaders around the world in the areas of economic empowerment, women's political participation, and human rights. Diane has been on the board of Vital Voices for over 10 years. Last year VV recognized my work by giving me their Leadership Award on Economic Empowerment. That night I met Diane and, from that moment on, she started to empower my business and work [with me] in so many different ways. We started with a fashion collaboration that landed in stores [earlier this month]; we created bag straps, earrings, bracelets, key chains and bag charms. Everything our team handcrafted in El Salvador. The pieces we created are available online and at DVF stores.

SL: What role has mentorship played in your own life?

AS: Through Vital Voices I have met so many amazing women. I met my first mentor a year after I launched Sequence, her name is Kathleen Holland — meeting her changed my life, she helped me create a strategic plan for my business that aligned with our mission to create social change. Meeting DVF has also been one of those moments where mentorship has played such a life-changing role.

SL: What are your goals for the future of Sequence?

AS: The goal is to continue to create and sell products that can continue to generate more opportunities and employment for at risk youth in El Salvador and, in the coming year, in the US.

SL: If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice what would it be?

AS: You are in charge of creating your own destiny. Don’t doubt your power.

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